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Thursday, June 14, 2012

coffee battenberg

Remember how much my family loved the mocha marble cake?This cake has the same, milky coffee flavor and is frosted with my famous coffee buttercream.

Battenberg is a traditional English sponge cake with a gorgeous checkered pattern on the inside. The cake was originally created to celebrate the marriage of Princess Victoria and Prince Louis of Battenberg -- the four cake panels panels symbolize the four princes of Battenberg. I thought this irresistibly festive cake would be the perfect way to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee across the pond.

Traditionally this cake is filled with jam or fruit preserves, and coated with marzipan; but since Nutella is awesome and my family is quite opposed to marzipan, I filled mine with Nutella and frosted it with my famous coffee buttercream.
What's your favorite traditional British dessert?
With love,
Erica

Spray an 8 inch square cake tin. Divide the tin in half by making a crease, the height of the tin, in the center of a piece of foil. Use the foil to base-line the tin, sliding a piece of cardboard inside the crease to support it. Whisk the butter and sugar together in a bowl and gradually beat in the eggs. Lightly beat in the flour, baking powder and salt. Divide the mixture in half and fold the instant coffee and and a tablespoon of milk into one portion and the remaining tablespoon of milk into the other.
Spoon one flavor into each side of the tin and bake in the oven at 375°F for about 30 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.
Trim each piece of cake and divide in half lengthwise. Sandwich together alternately with the Nutella.
Frost with coffee buttercream and decorate as desired.

This is beautiful! I happen to like marzipan and am a bit ambivalent about Nutella (I realize I'm in the minority here, but what can I say). I have a can of almond pastry filling that might work nicely here. One of my favorite English desserts is the Eccles Cake that I blog about here: http://tinyurl.com/43jrr34